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"It's always been you."
The water was almost hot enough to make her skin crawl. Abby sighed in contentment and leaned back until her head came to rest against Marcus’s collarbone.
Some of the water sloshed over the edge of the tub as his arms banded around her waist below her breasts. Abby closed her eyes; Marcus’s beard scratched pleasantly against her temple.
“Do you think anyone would notice if we stole the tub?”
Marcus’s laugh was a rumble against her back. “Might be a bit awkward to carry.”
“So, bad idea?”
His lips were cool in comparison to the piping hot water around them. They closed over the spot where Abby’s neck and shoulder met, and then moved down and out until Marcus nipped playfully at her shoulder.
“That depends,” he answered. “If I steal a tub you’ll have to make it worth my while.”
Abby smiled lazily and leaned to the side so she could tilt her head and look up at him.
“And how would you suggest I do that?”
Marcus moved one of his arms away from her waist in favor of pushing the curtain of her hair farther off to the side and kissing a line up her bared neck.
“Just like this.”
“That’s it? Me, naked in the bath?”
“You, naked in the bath, relaxed and happy. Preferably with me.”
“I can work with that. What else?”
“What do you mean?”
“What else do you want?”
Marcus squeezed the arm that still held her. “Just you.”
Abby swallowed an unexpected surge of emotion. She had labored so long under the weight of her strained relationship with her daughter, and her shortcomings as a leader, and the demands of a lawless life on the ground … it had been a long time since she could say that her presence was all someone wanted.
“Out of everyone,” she started, and her voice was too thick, too unsteady to continue.
Marcus dipped his head forward enough to draw her attention. When their eyes met he said, with startling warmth and emotion, “it’s you, Abby. It’s always been you.”
(Though she collected his I love you’s over the years like raindrops in a bucket, that first one remained forever her favorite.)